Iran to place missiles capable of hitting US in Venezuela

Iran is again upping the ante in the game of brinksmanship it is playing with the US and the rest of the Western world. It’s latest move? An agreement with the anti-US regime in Venezuela to base medium range ground-to-ground missiles there.

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles.

At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence capability to protect NATO’s populations and territories in Europe against ballistic missile attacks from the East (namely, Iran), Iran’s counter-move consists in establishing a strategic base in the South American continent – in the United States’s soft underbelly.

Some of us are old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis of the Kennedy era and the fact that we went to the very brink of nuclear war to prevent the USSR from establishing missile bases in Cuba.

Of course the USSR was a nuclear power at the time and so the possibility of nuclear weaponry being a part of those missiles was both real and likely. Iran, on the other hand, isn’t yet a power with nuclear weapons (or so say it and the rest of the world). But it is anticipated that they will soon have that capability.

So, if the report is true will the US allow the establishment of such missile bases in Venezuela? And with the possibility of the regime in Iran developing nuclear weapons, the possibility they’ll “share” them with Venezuela has to be taken serious. The agreement apparently allows Iran to establish a military base there manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The base with be jointly occupied by Venezuelan military as well.

And then there is this bit of ominous news about the agreement:

In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an "emergency". In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for "national needs" – radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia. The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base. It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers

The reported missile won’t reach the US, but the Iranians also have the Ghadr-110 which has a range of 2,500 to 3,000 km which is capable of hitting the US (Texas and Florida are less than 2,000 km from Venezuela. New Orleans is 2900 km from Venezuela).

Not only all of that, but it seems it is through Venezuela that Iran is planning to bypass UN weapons sanctions as well:

Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran. These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti[2], it found one: Venezuela.

Novosti reports the words of Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow-based think tank on international arms trade, saying that if the S-300 deal with Venezuela goes through, Caracas should pay cash for the missiles, rather than take another loan from Russia. "The S-300 is a very good product and Venezuela should pay the full amount in cash, as the country’s budget has enough funds to cover the deal ," Korotchenko said. Moscow has already provided Caracas with several loans to buy Russian-made weaponry, including a recent $2.2-mln loan on the purchase of 92 T-72M1M tanks, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment.

If Iran, therefore, cannot get the S-300 missiles directly from Russia, it can still have them through its proxy, Venezuela, and deploy them against its staunchest enemy, the U.S..

So, thus far, this is what the US’s “unclenched fist” has brought. A move by Iran – whether admitted or not – to establish a way at striking at the US should the US strike Iran. Additionally, it has found an ally to help it avoid weapons sanctions and obtain advanced weaponry that would help protect it’s nuclear facilities from air strikes through a proxy (of course, training and maintenance and parts may be difficult to obtain should Venezuela buy them and send them to Iran).

Iran has obviously not been sitting idly by while the West contrived to choke it off from the weaponry it wants. Additionally it has found a way to make any strike on their facilities much more risky for the US.

Anna Mahjar-Barducci of Hudson New York (Hudson Institute) concludes:

Back in the 1962, thanks to the stern stance adopted by the then Kennedy administration, the crisis was defused.

Nowadays, however, we do not see the same firmness from the present administration. On the contrary, we see a lax attitude, both in language and in deeds, that results in extending hands when our adversaries have no intention of shaking hands with us. Iran is soon going to have a nuclear weapon, and there are no signs that UN sanctions will in any way deter the Ayatollah’s regime from completing its nuclear program. We know that Iran already has missiles that can carry an atomic warhead over Israel and over the Arabian Peninsula. Now we learn that Iran is planning to build a missile base close to the US borders. How longer do we have to wait before the Obama administration begins to understand threats?

Her points are dead-on. The unclenched fist, as we predicted, has caused the aggressors of the world to decide to push the envelope. Believe it or not And why not? There’s no penalty evident for doing so. As I’ve told anyone who would listen, 2009 would be a year that the bad guys watched the new guy on the block and assessed him (weak or strong?). If they decide he’s a weak sister, they will begin to test him in 2010 and 2011. North Korea is right now in the middle of doing that and, as this deal indicates, Iran (and Venezuela) has absolutely no fear of the US’s reaction to basing missiles capable of hitting the US mainland in Venezuela. And START does nothing to address this situation, obviously. Yet that’s the administration’s current priority.

The phone is about to ring at 3am. You have to wonder when it does if it will just go to the answering machine.

26 Responses to Iran to place missiles capable of hitting US in Venezuela

On Tuesday he told reporters at a meeting organised by the Paris-based think-tank the Centre of Political and Foreign Affairs that he had seen North Koreans when he had been a foreign ministry official at Tehran airport. “I saw them with my own eyes,” he said. “They were treated in a very discreet manner, in order to pass through without being seen.” Heydari said he was “100 percent certain” that these contacts continue and alleged he had spoken to members of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards Corps who confirmed that Iran plans to build a bomb. “I was able to confirm that Iran has two goals — to develop the range of its ground-to-ground missiles and to obtain a nuclear weapon with the help of North Korea,” he said.

Would this be happening if oil was trading for $30 a barrel? I think not. Just another reason why our energy policy is so short sighted.
That said, I won’t be concerned until they actually deploy missiles in Venezuela. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a crisis because the missiles were discovered by aerial surveillance. Intelligence estimated that it was a matter of weeks before the missiles would be operational. Plus, the Soviets had ships en route with more missiles. In this case there’s a threat. Do I trust the administration to handle this? No, I don’t. But I also don’t see it as an immediate concern. If I were to do anything, I would encourage the OAS to make this an issue for continuing discussion. And I do agree that this is exactly the type of behavior you get when the Axis of Evil does not fear the Great Satan!

This article is totally preposterous and ridiculous. It feeds and fans the current and possible future wars in the Middle East by the fear mongers and war mongering merchants of death. The fact is that Iran is surrounded by 13, let me repeat, 13 US bases at this time and Iran has not invaded a country for over 400 years.

On 13 July, the Iranian units crossed the border in force, aiming towards the city of Basra, the second most important city in Iraq. However, the enemy they encountered had entrenched itself in formidable defenses. Unlike the hastily improvised defenses that the Iraqis had manned in Iran during the 1980–1981 occupation of the conquered territories, the border defenses were, by necessity, well developed even before the war, and the Iraqis were able to utilize a highly-developed network of bunkers and artillery fire-bases.

Hmmm… I would be MORTIFIED to be as wrong as you…but you are apparently not embarrassed by much…

I’m wondering if Chavez and his tinpot regime will implode before any missiles get deployed.

Anyway, I think that a few Iranian ships accidentally sinking due to an inadvertent collisions with Mk-48 torpedoes might persuade the mullahs that there are easier ways to pick a fight with us than by helping our hemisphere’s resident lunatic.

This is actually a perfect opportunity, politically speaking, for Obama to look tough on Iran without actually having to do anything about Iran. As Steve C. said, this is merely a threat to move missiles into Venezuela – not them already being there. All President Obama must do to appear strong is to threaten a blockade, he doesn’t need to employ one.

Threats in the western hemisphere ring to deafening decibels, unlike those that take place in a far-away sh!thole. After the debacle in Iraq, people here would turn away in disgust at an idea of military action against Iran if in or around Iran. Doing so closer to home, however, would garner much more support. Obama’s poll numbers would definitely go up.
Obama has proven himself aloof enough in the past to question if he would take any action at all, but if I were advising him, it would be a chip-shot.

We’ll see.

I remember from my childhood, my grandfather’s fallout shelter that he built during the CMC. I wasn’t around when he built it of course, but it sure made a good hang out for my particular “He-Man Women Haters Club.” Funny thing that – of course a couple of years later, the idea was to keep the fellas out, and to try and coax the girls down there. I was not very successful unfortunately.
Later, my father told me that my sister was conceived down there. I told him, “way too much information, dad.”

Ah, what he merely meant Pogue, was they thought maybe it was time to have a child, or another child…..

Heh, well… according to my father… that was my mother’s plan… but not his. But maybe that’s too much information. I wonder if we (the government) have the cajones to establish a naval blockade – we won’t even ‘blockade’ our own border at the moment.

True. But then again, those crossing our borders do not threaten us with missiles potentially capable of mass destruction. At least not yet, anyway.
However, I’ve had a few burritos that I would consider gut-bombs. /rimshot
Also, … me on tequila … I have been known to wreak havoc on small communities. Years ago, though… the threat has passed with minimal damages.

See “Predator”, USAF, armed drone.
Berry likes them. We know he likes them… Maybe somebody with both a brain and survival instinct in uniform can esplane to the man that we can’t have this in our Hemisphere.
The man who allows the U.S. to be targeted by Hugo Chavez and his broke-dik regime will not have a political future.